polyhedron

noun

poly·​he·​dron ˌpä-lē-ˈhē-drən How to pronounce polyhedron (audio)
plural polyhedrons or polyhedra ˌpä-lē-ˈhē-drə How to pronounce polyhedron (audio)
: a solid formed by plane faces
polyhedral adjective

Illustration of polyhedron

Illustration of polyhedron

Examples of polyhedron in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Euler implicitly assumed his polyhedra were convex, meaning a line segment joining any two points stayed completely within the polyhedron. quantamagazine.org, 26 Jan. 2021 Mold that box into a pyramid or tetrahedron or any other everyday polyhedron. Devin Powell, Discover Magazine, 20 Mar. 2019 This polyhedron is a classic prism made from professional-grade optical crystal glass. Popular Science, 23 Oct. 2019 The 20th-century mathematician Aleksandr Aleksandrov proved that for every two-dimensional polygon, there is one unique way of folding it to form a 3-D polyhedron. Quanta Magazine, 5 Jan. 2017 And the circle packing proof tells you that there’s a polyhedron that has all its edges tangent to a sphere. Quanta Magazine, 19 Mar. 2018 The printer cranks out up to 150 polyhedra each year – everything from models of protein crystallography to Mars' topography. Stacey Smith Lang, WIRED, 1 Nov. 2001

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek polýedron, from poly- poly- + -edron -hedron

Note: The Greek word is attested in Euclid's Elementa, Book 12, Proposition 17.

First Known Use

1570, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of polyhedron was in 1570

Dictionary Entries Near polyhedron

Cite this Entry

“Polyhedron.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyhedron. Accessed 6 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

polyhedron

noun
poly·​he·​dron ˌpäl-i-ˈhē-drən How to pronounce polyhedron (audio)
plural polyhedrons or polyhedra -drə How to pronounce polyhedron (audio)
: a geometric solid whose faces are each flat polygons
polyhedral adjective

More from Merriam-Webster on polyhedron

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!